How To Make Braised Spareribs

After making the Carolina style pulled pork, I decided to try the same technique on some spareribs. Did it work? Let me put it this way: I did two slabs with the long, slow braising, then two days later did another slab with my normaltechnique. Bad idea.

Normally the whole family loves my ribs. After doing them the new way? The old-style ribs were a disappointment. Still tasty, but the fall-off-the-bone tenderness of this new method just can’t be beat.

Cider / onion sauce

Directions

The sauce

This was supposed to be a big batch of grilled onions. They had 5-pound sacks of Vidalias on sale at the grocery store, so I thought I’d make a bunch and freeze them to use through the summer on steaks and sausages from the grill. That way when I cook out I don’t need to do a pan of onions inside on the stove and heat up the kitchen.

Well, it didn’t work out that way. I tried to go high-volume and do them all at once. So into the dutch oven went the bacon fat, until it was melted, then all the shredded onions.

Once they had cooked down enough that I could stir them without flinging hot veg all over the stove, I added the salt and pepper. (Which I did not measure.)

Instead of browning, like I wanted, the onions gave up so much liquid that I was almost making French onion soup. Which is good, but not what I was going for.

I didn’t have any beef broth, and wasn’t really in the mood for soup anyway. Then I remembered the three racks of ribs I had just bought so I could test my new knife.

Some of that is fat, but a whole lot more is water and melted connective tissue. That’s the stuff that makes pulled pork so lip-smacking good. It’s also why I’m using so much vinegar to cut through it, because otherwise it will feel like you’re sucking on a stick of butter. Moist is good. Greasy? Not so much.

So now that you’ve saved all that liquid instead of letting it drip into the coals and flare up, imparting smoky flavor, you need to get it back onto the ribs. I used a ladle but if you’ve got someone helping, you can just pour it out of the pan.

And you’ll be left with some sort-of-ugly ribs.

I knew this was going to be good, because bones were already falling out of the meat without me even touching them.

The sauce, part 2 — AKA the mop

After letting the liquid settle for a few minutes, I skimmed out the grease from the top, then added another cup of brown sugar.

Bring to a boil and let it start reducing.

Put the ribs under the broiler until the top just starts to bubble. (You can click on any of the pictures to see larger versions.)

Brush a little sauce on, and put back under the broiler until it’s bubbling again.

Return the sauce to the burner every time you put the ribs back under the broiler. And for God’s sake, don’t walk away. You can go from just-starting to bubbling-a-little to hey-why-is-the-smoke-detector-going-off in about 30 seconds once things are really going.

Do this several times, until you’re almost out of sauce, and the ribs are a deep brown.

Pull them out and admire your handiwork. Make your significant other come in and tell you how much they love you, and they’re lucky to have you.

The big finish

This is the part where you realize how amazing these are going to be. Don’t try to lift the slab from one end, like you normally do, or they’ll completely fall apart. Get two sets of tongs and reach as far under as you can.

Oh man, this looks so good. I’ve been working in Japan the last few weeks, and this recipe has made “meaty meaty ribs” skyrocket to the top of my “foods I can’t wait to eat when I get back to the States.

These are pork spareribs. The other kind you’re most likely to see are baby back ribs. They are a more even length from one end to the other, and don’t have that big bone at the large end to deal with. They’re more tender, too, so they don’t need this treatment as badly as the spareribs do.

Hey Drew,
I cooked these yesterday…and on into last night, but since I didn’t have on hand all the ingredients you listed, I improvised with what I had on hand. Also, I have a new smoker that I wanted to take advantage of, so the first four hours of cooking was done absorbing a nice applewood smoke. Since I didn’t have any Vidalia onions on hand, I just used regular, yellow onions, but cooked them down until they were caramelized into a nice dark brown sweetness. Also didn’t have any apple cider vinegar on hand, so I substituted red wine vinegar and just a bit of Balsamic (but not too much, because this could easily become overpowering). Since I didn’t have quite enough enough brown sugar on hand, I added a bit of Hershey’s chocolate syrup to the final sauce mix. I also coated the ribs generously ahead of time with both Montreal Steak Seasoning and a generous amount of crushed red chili. The end results were amazing. They are some of the best ribs I’ve ever eaten. I brought some to a neighbor and they couldn’t stop eating. It’s kinda’ addicting. Later, I’ll try it again with a purer use of the ingredients you suggested. Thanks for the recipe and all your tips.

Yeah, there wasn’t so much chocolate that you would recognize it, especially after cooking down all of the other ingredients with it. But, there was just a little somthin-somthin about the sauce on these ribs that defies explanation, but made them addictive. Years ago, I saw another rib sauce recipe that called for chocolate syrup and always thought it would be interesting to try, but was never brave enough to risk ruining my ribs by trying it. This time, my lack of ingredients forced me to try it. It turned out to be outstanding. I have since given a few other friends a taste of these. They say they are the best ribs they’ve EVER tasted. 😛

The chocolate sauce is reminiscent of Mexican mole (mole-ay). I had a BBQ chicken mole down in Rosarito, Mexico a few years ago that was out of this world. So it makes sense. (A shout out about Allan: I turned him on to your website because I’ve known him experimenting with ribs and have had some of his amazing home made sauces for over 20 years, so this is no rib gringo cooking this stuff up.)

I’m testing out this recipe today (and will do the last part under the broiler tomorrow, before guests arrive). My husband is usually the rib cooker in our home (he smokes them), but that’s a big “event” because he has to check the smoker often and make sure it’s maintaining it’s temp. It can just be a big bother. I remembered coming across this recipe and he “approved it”. (FYI, that’s a big deal because he’s a true Cajun and we used to own a BBQ restaurant where he did all the smoking/cooking of the meat.)

Hoping it turns out as great as everyone says!!! Can’t wait to taste test! I’ll let you know the reaction of our friends! (This is my first time cooking ribs as “ribs” and not pulled pork!)

If your ribs are falling off the bone, they are overcooked. There is a common misconception about this, most likely because restaurants started advertising this as meaning something other than they boil their ribs in huge batches for way too long.

[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Alex Jones, Maximus Nofunicus. Maximus Nofunicus said: added to @delicious How To Make Braised Spareribs | How To Cook Like Your Grandmother http://bit.ly/aIAri7 […]

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About the Author

Drew Kime

Cleveland, Ohio

I write about old-fashioned cooking, which means: from scratch, with real food, and great taste is more important than fancy presentation. I favor organic food when practical, but I'm not religious about it.